Individuals perform well at track's Princeton Invite

Think of something that weighs 35 pounds. Your backpack with your organic chemistry, multi-variable calculus and molecular biology textbooks for example. Now think about how far you could hurl it. Unless a calculus professor was the intended target, most Princeton students probably could not loft it further than 10 feet.

Not only can freshman Josh McCaughey throw a 35-pound weight nearly seven times that distance, but every time he's competed in 35-lb. weight throw competitions in this season's indoor track meets, he manages to set yet another personal record.

This weekend at the Princeton Invitational McCaughey did it again, this time breaking the Junior National record with a toss of 67 feet, 10.75 inches.

Also throwing a personal best was senior Scott Denbo who won the shot put with a throw of 60-4. Saturday marked the comeback of junior Tora Harris, champion high jumper. Taking an easy first place with a jump of 6-11.75 Harris seems to have recovered fully from his foot surgery in October.

One event in which Princeton fared particularly well was the 5000-meter run. Jeff Dichiara led the sweep with a time of 15 minutes, 38.9 seconds. The Tigers also swept the 3000 and the mile with freshman Matt Tanner and junior Kevin Gallagher taking the respective wins.

Princeton was also able to take the first three spots of both the 400- and 800-meter events. Senior Paul Gallup took first in the 400 while freshman Colin Brown took the win in the 800. Also coming away with wins were freshman Josh Kauke in the 500, sophomore Justin Schottel in the 200 and freshman John Kieliszak in the 1000.

The Princeton women also swept several events, including the top six places in the mile. Freshmen made strong showings all around. First-year runner Kristee Sherry took first in the mile with a time of 5:11.55 and Liz Morse took the win in the 800 with a time of 2:14.77. The women were also able to sweep the 400-meter event. Taking first in that race was freshman Didi Yep with a time of 1:00.42. Finishing out the strong first-year showing was Dale Maffett with a win in the 200.

Not to be shown up by the male shot-putters, freshman Betsy Ken-nedy and senior Khalila Thomas took first and second in that event. Also taking the respective one-two spots in the 3000 were sophomores Becca Hylander and Sarah Rivlin. Becky Haarlow took second in the triple jump, while fellow senior Sharon Jordan placed third.

Both teams are poised and ready going into the Heps. This historic meeting of the Ivy League teams brings deep-seated rivalries and some of the nation's best athletes together for the two-day event that will take place Saturday and Sunday in Boston.

Senior captain Tensai Asfaw, who took this weekend off in preparation for Heps, spoke about the importance of Heps for the team.

"I am certainly hungry to redeem a cross country Heps loss, and I hope everyone else realizes everyone else in the league wants nothing more than to see us lose," Asfaw said. "Too bad we have to disappoint them."